Dictionaries › English

tract

Pronunciation: /tɹækt/

The English word “tract” has 15 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. An area or expanse.
  2. A series of connected body organs, such as the digestive tract.
  3. A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
  4. A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
  5. A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
  6. Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
  7. Part of the proper of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, used instead of the alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, in a Requiem Mass, and on a few other penitential occasions.
  8. Continuity or extension of anything.
  9. Traits; features; lineaments.
  10. The footprint of a wild animal.
  11. Track; trace.
  12. Treatment; exposition.

verb

  1. To pursue, follow; to track.
  2. To draw out; to protract.
  3. To treat, discourse, negotiate.

Etymology

From Middle English tract, tracte, traht (“a treatise, exposition, commentary”), from Old English traht, tract (“a treatise, exposition, commentary, text, passage”); and also from Middle English tract, tracte (“an expanse of space or time”); both from Latin tractus (“a haul, drawing, a drawing out”), the perfect passive participle of trahō. Doublet of trait.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “tract” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.